Garage closing was nasty hype, no doubt. But at the same time, and I kinda/sorta feel this way, I would have LOVED to have the cat and mouse between our boys to play out at least til Epi 3 or 4 of the finale season. BUT! In Vince I trust, and if he and his crew decided that this was right for the PREMIERE, then I can’t even fathom what he has planned for the next seven. Dope. Ill. So So So beautiful television.

Of course he’s not there to kill Hank. He’s there putting out feelers.

See, this is why we all love this show so much. Instead of dicking around with the obvious “does Hank know?” “Does Walt know Hank knows?” That’s all sorted, they both know each other knows. Where does it go from here? I don’t have the slightest clue (you were right, guidance counselors). Now we all get to smile-hump this show for the next two months. Naming your kid Kaleesi? Nah, fuck that. Name your kid Danger. Like Guerrero.

Dean Norris absolutely killed it in this episode. He completely sold Hank as a guy who just had everything he thought he knew about his life and family turned upside down and inside out and was really fucking angry about it.

Every second he was on-screen, he looked like he was ready to tear everyone within 15 yards of him to shreds. Masterful job.

@Zero Charisma: I think Jesse survives and only because his eyes are now truly open to what they have done. He may not escape prosecution for the crimes he and the others committed, but I do think he does not end up dead.

Yeah, I was referring to “Heisenberg” on the wall. Thanks, Lodown. And they don’t just board off houses in the middle of residential neighborhoods for no reason. My guess is some wild shit’s gonna go down at Walt’s quiet little family home.

Yeah, you have a point. I might be reading too much into things. Regardless, we know that the house has been abandoned and at least one person knows who he is.

By the way, how disconcerting was that scene? Seeing the house in ruins was a little depressing. I mean, we know it’s all gonna come crashing down, but actually seeing the aftermath was eerie. Can’t wait to see how we get there.

What interested me is that the house seemed to be condemned by the city Safe City Strike Force, and not the DEA (The DEA wouldn’t fence off the entire front yard). Presumably on the excuse that—and because this is pretty much the top reason the Strike Force seeks civil condemnations of residences in Albuquerque—the house was used for making meth. Since he is a meth cook, the city had enough to convince a judge that meth was cooked in the house. The house was torn apart very thoroughly and professionally (I can’t recall exactly, but the boards broken on the kitchen floor seem relevant to when Walt was hiding money under the house in Season 1 or 2), likely for two reasons: Seizure and “decontamination.”

This makes me very curious as well as to how Walt is on the run. If the DEA went in and searched, then turned it over to the City Albuquerque to condemn, then his real identity is almost certainly known to the public at large, and certainly to his neighbors. When the Strike Force comes in, it’s a bit of a spectacle even if they don’t bulldoze the building.

I assume the M60 is to go to war against Lydia’s Czech connection, because that’s probably Russian mob and those guys don’t fuck around.

I read this theory somewhere else, maybe even here, but the way Walt was handling the ricin makes me believe that he will, indeed, use the ricin on himself. Think about it, he bought an M60, if he has to kill somebody or defend himself he’s not worried about doing it on the hush hush anymore. In the pilot, he tried to shoot himself, so hes obviously not of the mindset to be taken alive. Walt is making sure he dies no matter what

He probably needs the gun to protect himself from the Czechs after he told them he would make them a bomb, but gave them a shoddy bomb casing full of used pinball machine parts instead. Wait, what movie am I in again?

ok, hear me out on this one, I don’t think the events taking place in the flash forwards are 6 months in the future I think they’re over a year or so from the events that ended the current episode. If you remember at the Denny’s when Walt shows his ID to confirm its his birthday its the fake ID he shows not his. Why would his fake ID have the same birthday as his actual birthday. If you’re gonna spend the money on a fake identity why would you have anything similar to your actual identity. So when he’s at the denny’s he’s aware that its his fake ID’s birthday so he does the bacon bit.

Well hes already using skylers maiden name of Lambert, so obviously he doesnt mind some things being similar, and I think Walt is already arranging the bacon when he gets it which prompts his waitress to ask if its his birthday. Also Walt told hank in six months he wouldnt have anyone to prosecute because he would be dead.

Walt could have easily been lying to Hank about how much time he had left; he’s obviously got no compunction about lying to anyone about pretty much anything. But regardless in that opening scene he looked pretty run down; I don’t think he’s in great health at that point.

I really hope we dont get Emo jesse for this last season. Emo Jesse is the worst. I think it was season 3 but that whole time he let his house turn into a 24hr party house/crack den, I hated watching that.

All he does is mope around though. Season 4 and 5A jesse was great because he was basically mike’s protege, I get it that he knows mike is dead but still, Jesse is a much better character when he is acting like mike

Here’s an obvious color theory I took away from tonight’s episode: Hank in red. Hank was seen wearing 2 articles of red clothing tonight. Hank, to my knowledge, has never been seen wearing red before. As we know, Gilligan uses color to represent many things. Red = Danger. Obviously, Hank is in danger. But there’s also this: If you are familiar with Star Trek, the redshirted members of Starfleet are often killed. They are often victims of attacks and, yep, sickness. What was Hank’s little episode about tonight? Think Skinny Pete and Badger’s Star Trek monologue was just for the heck of it?

That Star Trek connection is brilliant. Especially with Hank’s insides perhaps blowing up on him like Chekov’s in the pie-eating contest.

Holy shit, could that have been the most brilliant Chekov’s gun placement ever? Chekov’s blueberry pie covered insides? Chekov/Czech Republic? Should I probably stop thinking about this episode and go to bed?

@bentenn: After looking back for some old Saul references, I stumbled upon a line that Saul delivered to Walter when needing to get rid of the RV. “Did you not plan for this contingency? I mean the Starship Enterprise had a self-destruct button.” Maybe I am fishing here or maybe Gilligan just can’t help his love for Star Trek. I definitely thing there is more of a correlation then we realize at this point.

Heyyyy. Do we know how or why Walt got the notion that something was or might be amiss with the reading selection in the bathroom? Did he just put two and two together in terms of “Hank used this bathroom the other day right before he ‘got sick’. This is where I keep ‘Leaves of Grass’. Uh-oh.”? Or did he notice something about the stack of magazines that I didn’t?

He knew the book was supposed to be there and then searched the house for it, when it went missing the paranoia of Hank leaving suddenly, the book disappearing and Hank not going to work made him check his car for a bug.

Oh my bad. I guess I didn’t phrase my confusion properly. I realize that he saw the book was missing and that made him think Hank may have been on to him. I was asking what made him notice that the book was gone in the first place? Like, while he was throwing up, why did he think to look at the reading material? The way I remember it, he was throwing up, and then looked up at the magazines as if he had an epiphany. I guess I just didn’t know if there was some super subtle thing I missed that would indicate why he thought to look to see if the book was still there.

hey, they can’t all be first round picks. sometimes people just have to notice books missing in the midst of vomiting to move a story along. There is nothing we can do about it. *slams payphone receiver into payphone*

it’s tough to make every plot point perfectly reasonable. i would have preferred walter discover the book is missing while about to take a crap himself, and the scene ends with him sitting there with his pants down, pun intended. i personally found it odd for him to look up for a book after vomiting, it really seemed random. i also would find it odd to want to read post vomiting to pass some time. much like the comments below, it also would seem a little against character for walter to leave something so incriminating on a toilet, though only 1 person in the would would be able to know it’s incriminating, but it of course made for a great reveal.

Oh no. I didn’t mean to come off as a troll or anything. Like, “zomg Vince Gilligan doesn’t know what he’s doing. That scene ruined the show for me. I’m never watching again!” like some petulant child/unreasonable internet nerd. I just felt my face scrunch up quizzically during that scene as though I was racking my brain trying to make sure I didn’t miss a quick shot that would’ve shown that something was obviously wrong with the stack of books. I know when I’m throwing up, I don’t want to read anything. But maybe Walt, like Hank, myself, and everyone else, has his most productive thoughts in the bathroom. I didn’t necessarily think it was *random*. I just wasn’t sure if I missed something. And, as if this fact hasn’t hit me in the face with a 2×4 a dozen times over the past five seasons, the garage scene — which I wasn’t expecting for a few episodes — reaffirmed the fact that there’s no reason for me to question the writers. Sometimes they have to get somewhere quickly, and when they get there, it’s the best thing evar.

a lot of talk about colours in the comments. but what about sauls choice of colour when talking to jesse? classic pilot episode walt green shirt with orange (hank) and purple (marie) tie. must mean something, it just must

Gonna put it out there, since we are all wildly (& deliciously) speculating: Walt Jr dies by episode 5. Not sure how, but it is the final nail in the metaphorical coffin. The ricin is to kill whomever did it, along with unfortunate others.

Well I didn’t read it. I was wondering if I should, or if anyone thinks its legit. I mean the Ultimate Fighter doesn’t get spoiled. And there’s fuckloads of moving pieces there, arguable more moving pieces than BB and less reliable moving pieces too.

Psych, here’s the ending: Walt blackmails Hank to kill Skyler, get Walt Jr. to graduate from breakfast to brunch, and have Marie give him a handy that would wake a paralyzed dick. Hank agrees, but only on the condition that he take Marie off his hands. Walt then bargains a trade to let him franchise out a car wash in exchange for a Marie Handy. Saul fucks up the paperwork and confuses the franchise agreement with Badger’s Star Wars script and Hank gets a hold of it early and replaces JJ Abrams as the director for the new Star Trek franchise.

Cold Open
Seeing the White house cordoned off like that hit me HARD. Okay. So Hank decided to bust his ass. I can’t say that it was the obvious because I never guess anything right on this show. There are many, many things to consider before we assume that Hank will do his propers and go policeman on Walt. It’s so gloriously unpredictable and dangerous.

Lydia maintains her rental
Walt does Gus quite well. But hold on, who are these “car wash professionals”? Aren’t Walt and Sky indeed those people? Lydia acts like a rookie. “Bitch! My wife is here.” Do Not Talk To Me Here.

Hank: Homework BEFORE video games
I LOVED how Hank got to work so damn quick. A pro’s pro’s pro. It engulfs the man, and VG and Co. make it evident that it does. Go Hank! Go Hank! But not to quick please.

Sad Sack Jesse
Look at Aaron’s face. Examine it. He IS Jesse. Donating to the Ermintrout (spelling is prob wrong) and Desert Kid is without a doubt, a noble gesture……IN A VACUUM! Saul knows better. Jesse’s heart is in the right place, but giving that kind of serious money away to those folk won’t do much but set off alarms . Though I agree with WW, he does need to move on. You can either mope about the past or make your life worth living. C’mon Jess. Wish I was that homeless guy.

Deja Vu
Does Jesse believe him? I don’t think he does. He gave that ‘extended’ look at Walt. I like the symbolism with the money as the divider between walt and jess.

Cat and Mouse and Cheese
Walt throws up, notices ‘Leaves’ missing, scours the house, finds the tracker.
As a fan of slow-burners, I would have LUSTED for the game to go on at least 3 or 4 episodes. But as a realist, I understand that this probably was necessary. Will never forget the garage closer and Walt stopping short to confront Hank about the tracker (such a balls move). But I am NOT going over to VG and tell him how to make a hit tv series. But I already know, just hours later, that fans are going to clamor that it happened to quick, and the others will say that time is running out. I’m with the latter. I’ve trusted this crew to give me heart-pounding suspense for four years now, I’m not switching teams now. I didn’t like it at first (the “I know that you know”) but I’m confident that the remaining 7 are going to be chock damn full of surprises.
What a premiere. This is hall of fame shit right here.

Someone pointed out that Hank a couple of weeks ago that Hank would have a lot of explaining to do if the Hiesenberg figure turned out to be the brother-in-law of the local head DEA agent, who had been bugging his office, consulting on the investigation and paying his huge medical bills. I’m with Charlie Potatoes on that; I’m very curious if that’s going to make Hank hesitate at all. My guess is no, but that outing Walt leads to the end of Hank’s career. Or life, whichever.

After the series ends I want a special dedicated to showing all the students who gave shit to Walter throughout his years as a chemistry teachers hitting their pants when they find out he is Heisenberg

Breaking Bad has a color scheme that it likes to stick to (see Marie and purple). According to what we’ve seen in season 2, pink is related to death. Did anyone else notice that Hank is almost exclusively wearing pink in this episode?

I’m pretty sure no one else noticed it, because it’s not even close to being correct. He’s wearing a light orange/khaki shirt in the first set of scenes, obviously the same one he was wearing in episode 8 from 5A. The next time we see him he’s setting up shop in his garage and he’s wearing a dark grey t-shirt. The final time we see him is also in his garage leading to the confrontation with Walt and he’s wearing a maroon shirt in that scene. Unless we’re calling maroon pink now I don’t see where he wore pink one single time in this episode, let alone wearing it “almost exclusively”.

Loved the episode, but one thing bothered me: how does Walt even suspect there’s a bug on his car? Did I miss something — did he hear a rustling outside when he was in bed? It seemed a little amiss to me that Walt now has spidey-sense regarding his potential enemies. A little too convenient….

He was trying to confirm his suspicions that it was Hank who found the book. He knew Hank has used trackers in the past and so that is the quickest/easiest way for him to check if Hank was on to him.

I didn’t have a problem with him connecting the dots, but I didn’t get why Walt had the book where he had it. It seems odd he left it in such a prominent place in his home. He immediately freaked when he knew it was gone, so why flaunt it?

I have a strong feeling Hank is going to pay Jesse a visit again since he mentioned his name when talking about the fake Marie is in the hospital call. And anyone else think that at this point Jesse may O.D.?

I do think Hank visits Jesse, but I don’t think Jesse OD’s. I think Jesse is standing on the ledge, but Hank pulls him back in and gets a confession or cooperation to build a stronger case against Walter.

Jesse has long defended Walter even when he didn’t need to, but the look in Jesse’s eyes when Walter was telling him Mike was still out there painted a picture of a scared man who does not want to be the next victim of Heisenberg.

Control. The guy is all about control. And now, he even has to run air freshener decisions by his wife. He’s back to being low man on the totem pole in his house, at his work. Lying and keeping secrets is how Walt maintains control.

By mid episode I’m thinking, “How could they POSSIBLY wrap this up in another 7 and a half episodes?” Then of course they chose to put the Walt/Hank confrontation at the end of the episode and that puts the whole thing on fast forward.

173 comments! I’m not going to read all that. I’m just going to say that the “Star Trek” story was not only classic, but it reference a whittling down to just 3 players and that they were eating BLUE berries. Is Pinkman the one who gets his guts transported into space?

I’d just like to say that he was making some sort of analogy. In his story he whittled down the contestants to 3 and they’re eating BLUE berries. I couldn’t figure out whose guts got jettisoned into space. Jesse? Is Walt or Hank “Kirk” or “Spock”?

Scanning all of the comments and it doesn’t look like anyone has mentioned Jesse smoking pot in Saul’s office and Huell telling Jesse he can’t do that. I was almost thinking that it was going to come out that the Ricin cigarette that Jesse “lost” was actually taken off of him by Huell.

@CAPSLOCK17: At first I thought it was just a cigarette, but when the secretary and Huell both freaked out I knew it was pot. Saul also quipped “Woody Harrelson, live and in person. Pull up a bong and take a seat.”

I predict that the cops are going to find Jesse, after the stunt with the money. Once they do the little bitch is going to snitch on Walt and sing like a canary. Which will lead to Walt becoming a wanted man on the run.